The two state championships his teams earned at Rocky Mount Academy are memorable, but legendary football coach B.W. Holt said he’d always remember that first win as head coach at Franklinton High School back in the late 1970’s.
“Franklinton is a very special place,” Holt said on Wednesday’s SportsTalk with Scout Hughes and Doc Ayscue. “That’s where I won my first ballgame…we beat Bunn. At Bunn.”
Holt, 81, is a member of the 2026 class of inductees to the North Carolina High School Athletic Association Hall of Fame.
With more than 300 wins under his belt, Holt ranks among the winningest high school coaches in state history. He built winning programs at Franklinton High School, Starmount in Yadkin County, Rocky Mount High School and Rocky Mount Academy.
Franklinton High School was his second stop on his head coaching journey and he pretty much restarted the program when he arrived in 1972 from Southwest Randolph.
He’d started the football program at Southwest Randolph from the ground up, and after a couple of years there, he decided it was a good idea to look around.
Franklinton had had one winning season in 19 years when Holt arrived; the school had plenty of athletes, but it was basically a basketball school, as Holt recalled. It’s the home of UCLA standout point guard Henry Bibby and his brother, pro baseball pitcher Jim Bibby. There was less interest in football.
But Holt, who coached there from 1972-1978, got hold of some of those natural athletes and fielded some pretty good teams.
“The Franklinton situation became a good situation,” Holt said. “We ended up with great leadership…things kind of worked out for us.” People got excited about football, he said. And Holt was the first coach to have a 10-win season. Two, in fact. One in 1977 and one in 1978.
He left Franklinton for Starmount in Yadkin County and coached there until 1997. Starmount was in a 3A league then, and Holt said it became quite competitive.
He left Starmount for Tennessee High School in Bristol, TN because he’d reached the 30-year mark of teaching and coaching, and he could retire – but he couldn’t “double-dip” in North Carolina.
He entertained offers from schools in South Carolina and Virginia, but he and his wife settled on Bristol.
From Bristol, he returned to Montgomery County – where he grew up – and spent a couple of years there. His second year back, his West Montgomery team beat the Number 1 seed on their home field.
“We beat West Wilkes at West Wilkes,” he said, with more than a hint of satisfaction in his voice.
Then a job came up open in Rocky Mount and Holt said, “Let’s give it a shot.” In six years, he’d accumulated a 71-12 record. “We did everything but win a state championship.”
Then it was on to Rocky Mount Academy, where they played 8-man teams. They hadn’t won a ballgame in years, Holt said. But it wasn’t long before that all changed at RMA – Holt’s 2014 team went undefeated with an overall 12-0 record.
Holt reeled off names of coaches and school administrators he’d worked with and coached against, recalling the 41 years of coaching as if they’d happened last week.
One particular administrator told Holt that he didn’t know anything about athletics and he didn’t want to know anything about athletics.
Holt said he replied, “Just stay the h%*+ out of the way and we’ll be ok.”
The NCHSAA Hall of Fame Class of 2026 will be formally inducted during a ceremony on August 15 at the Grandover Resort in Greensboro.
From Left to Right, B.W. Holt, Steve Pace, Gary Murray, James Foster, all while at Franklinton. Picture used with permission from Barbara Holt, B.W. Holt’s wife
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